Bryce Dallas Howard: Spidey's "Other Woman"

You know her best from her work in M. Night Shyamalan flicks The Village and Lady in the Water. Blue-eyed, red-haired Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of director Ron Howard, seems more physically matched to the Mary Jane role in Spider-Man 3 than very blonde Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's lab partner, daughter of the police chief and potential girlfriend but she pulls off blonde very well.

We met with the actress in Beverly Hills recently. She's a very recent new mom and she says she owes a lot of coaching to co-star Tobey Maguire and his fiance who had their baby three months before her. She's back to being a redhead and is getting back in shape for a new film. Bryce told us all about her baby (her dad Ron drove her to the hospital), what it's like to embody an iconic character in the Spider-Man comics mythos, doing many of her own stunts and, oh yeah, being a temporary blonde.

TeenHollywood: You looked great as a blonde.

Bryce: Oh, thank you. They worked very hard in the make-up trailer.

TeenHollywood: Do blondes have more fun?

Bryce: I don't know. I was only a blonde for six months and the entire time I was working but I had a great time working.

TeenHollywood: Gwen Stacy is such an iconic figure in the Spider-Man mythos. Did you have to read up on her? She's different in this film.

Bryce: This character was created in the late '60's, early '70's so there's been so much analysis done since and so many papers written about her so I wasn't only reading the comic books, I was also reading what everyone thought about her and their beliefs about her. What was a little tricky to navigate was, in the comic books, she's known as Peter Parker's first love and, in this franchise, she's coming in while Peter Parker in still in a very intense, important relationship with Mary Jane. So, I wanted to make sure that, when I came in, I wasn't acting like some kind of man-stealing tart [laughs]. Who knows what will ultimately happen? But, that was the kind of tone that I wanted to create.

TeenHollywood: What do you personally like about the character of Spider-Man?

Bryce: What I like about it is there's this seemingly ordinary character who has every kind of problem that a person could have; financial, romantic, familial problems and social problems and he gets these extraordinary powers and he uses them solely for contribution to others. I think it's amazing, watching the movie and seeing him be Spider-Man and going and saving people and everyone is writing these articles about him and all the headlines are about him. Then he comes back to his little, itsey-bitsey apartment. I think, in this day and age, if someone has an ability, they'll so quickly turn it into a commodity that can make money so it's a very powerful message to send out to people; that, when you have something to give, give it and give it freely.

TeenHollywood: Good point. Did you have fun in the comedic club scene with the dark Tobey?

Bryce: [laughs] That was just wild to shoot. That was my version of a musical practically. It was so cool because there's this heightened realism in this film that is very playful. I felt like a little kid. We were practically delirious. We shot it over the course of four evenings, four night shoots and there's just the clapping and laughing and music. We were just so hyper the entire time. It was just really, really fun to shoot.

TeenHollywood: You get to do quite a lot of stunts in this film. We read that you wanted to do more. Had you always wanted to do an action film?

Bryce: Yeah. With every single film, you have a chance to learn about different things and have different kinds of experiences and I just wanted to take as much out of this as possible and one of those things was the stunts, the physicality of the this film. It's safe. It's totally safe. The stunt team is not going to let you do anything that's going to injure you so I really just got to enjoy myself.

TeenHollywood: Any fun on-set memories?

Bryce: I have many wonderful memories. I loved the dance scene. I loved doing the crane sequence which was so wild to do. Most of my memories from the set are my interactions and friendships with Topher and with Kirsten and James and Tobey and Sam. I felt like I was back at college, just like with my friends hanging out, then we'd go do our work and then we'd hang out some more. We had a really good time together.

TeenHollywood: Have you noticed a change in Tobey since he's become a father?

Bryce: I wouldn't say there's been some kind of insane change because he's always been an unbelievably compassionate person, a very committed person; committed to the people around him being happy, being supported and loved. Him being a father was even more of a fulfillment of his natural instincts and the natural way that he is in the world. He is incredible. I was calling them just a few days after the birth and he would stay on the phone with me for like an hour or an hour and a half talking through things with me when Jen [Meyer, Tobey's fiance] couldn't talk because she was nursing or something like that. Now, going through it, I was just like 'how did you have that time? I didn't call anybody for weeks and weeks'. I felt like that was very much of a gift for me and my husband [actor Seth Gabel].

TeenHollywood: Did you get any Hollywood mom advice from Jennifer Meyer?

Bryce: Well, I practically shadowed her for her entire pregnancy and just copied every single move that she made because she's an incredibly mindful parent. They both are. I really want to follow their example in every way so I had the same doctor as them, the same mid-wife as them, everything because I knew that they did their research.

TeenHollywood: When you were a little girl, did you have a comic book heroine or hero?

Bryce: I didn't really read comic books when I was a little kid. They weren't really around at all. And, I didn't really watch television. Mostly, it was books. There were a lot of heroines in books that my parents read to me.

TeenHollywood: Like Nancy Drew?

Bryce: Yeah. I loved Nancy Drew, absolutely.

TeenHollywood: Did you watch your dad in "The Andy Griffith Show" or "Happy Days" when you were a kid?

Bryce: [laughs] Actually, I didn't watch "Happy Days" when I was a kid but I did watch a few Andy Griffith Shows because my mom thought it was really moral and that we should see it. She also had us watch like "Leave It to Beaver" and things like that.

TeenHollywood: Did you even recognize your dad?

Bryce: Oh sure, yeah. I think it's so lucky that I got to see my dad as a little kid. Also, for Theo [her new baby] because my dad is older and as Theo grows, he'll get older and older and for him to be able to see my dad at the same age that he is, is going to be very cool.

TeenHollywood: How are your parents with their first grandchild?

Bryce: Oh, my mom has literally referred to him as 'my son'. She said 'my son'. I'm like 'no, no, [laughs]. I didn't go through this for him to be your son'. But, they're just so happy. I'm the eldest of four kids and my brother just left the house and they were, at first really excited about it and now they're just kind of like 'oooooh, where are the kids?' So, now is the perfect time.

TeenHollywood: How is your dad reacting?

Bryce: He's just so happy. It's really cute too, to see him walking around the house holding Theo and doing, kind of like these weird, goofy raps for him and stuff like that. It's so sweet. My parents are saying 'he's so advanced at this. He's so advanced at that'. And I'm like very proud and then my mom was like 'you know, I think you were very slow as a child. You were always very sweet but you were very slow'. I was like 'thanks, Mom'. [laughs]

TeenHollywood: Do you sing?

Bryce: Uh huh.

TeenHollywood: Do you think you might be interested in the new Broadway Musical of Spider-Man, playing Mary Jane?

Bryce: I just heard about that this morning. That is insane. That's unbelievable. I'm so glad about that because I love these stories and I love what it represents for kids and for families. It's great for them to be exploring this other medium. I've done a Broadway show [2003 Played "Mariane" in the Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival of Moliere's "Tartuffe."] But, I've never done a Broadway musical. Ooo, I don't know if I'm that good [laughs]. There are some really stellar singers with some unbelievable voices. I don't know if I'm quite at that level.

TeenHollywood: Are you going to go back to work soon?

Bryce: Well, hopefully I'm going to do a movie in August called The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond. It's a Tennessee Williams' screenplay that had never been made before.

TeenHollywood: Do you have to get in any kind of shape? Is there a deadline?

Bryce: Well, honestly, yeah but this is very brand new right now and my primary responsibility is Theo, feeding him and making sure that he's growing and that he's healthy. My focus is not my physique right now. Although, in terms of my health, it will be. And, I'll know when it's the right time to start focusing on that more.

TeenHollywood: Did you film As You Like It before Spider-Man?

Bryce: I filmed As You Like It I think two years ago. I filmed it before I did Lady in the Water. It's being released, I believe, on HBO which I'm really excited about. Yeah, that was an awesome experience. I can't wait for that to come out and we'll get to talk about it.

TeenHollywood: M. Night Shyamalan has gotten some bad press lately. He kind of got your career started. What have you got to say about that?

Bryce: Well, he is a very dear friend and I'm so grateful to have worked with him not once but twice and would love to work with him in the future. I think he is a remarkable filmmaker and a great storyteller. Careers, just in general, have peaks and valleys and that's how it is. I'm very accustomed to seeing that because I grew up with a filmmaker as my father. So, something like that doesn't alarm me at all. I know what Night has up his sleeve and it's gonna just blow everyone away.

TeenHollywood: Did you ever think you didn't want to enter the family business?

Bryce: Well, honestly, in the beginning, when I was in high school and I started getting interested in acting, I thought to myself, 'oh, God, I'm really setting myself up for a lot of criticism if I actually try to pursue this and if I'm a failure, everybody will be embarrassed by me'. I was pretty insecure about it. But, then I realized there's really nothing else I could do. So I just have to give this my all and whatever the results are, are what they're gonna be and I can't really control that. So, now I have a lot more peace of mind about it, honestly.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.